An interview about working on Personalia was published in the renowned FotoRoom photography platform. Read the whole interview here.
“Graffiti photography tends to be quite homogenous. Usually, the focus is on the action of painting and the adrenaline-filled missions, and the writers are often portrayed posing besides trains, full of boasting macho attitude. I wanted to make very calm and still portraits in locations away from the obvious graffiti spots, yet somehow related to the mysterious aura that surrounds the culture. I wanted to show who these people really are—a huge challenge when not everyone was willing to reveal, or fully reveal, their faces. Then again, there are other factors like body language, clothing or just the gaze in their eyes which are very important. I tried to form a connection with my subjects, so that viewers could sort of have a private moment with these people they have never had a chance to meet before. In fewer words, I wanted to do something new. This is also why I did not make any photographs of graffiti. Everybody knows what graffiti look like, and there are millions of photographs of graffiti online. To be honest, I find the paintings themselves rather uninteresting, but everything that goes beyond the paintings, such as the writers’ ambition, their skills planning the missions, and their dedication to their art, is very fascinating and inspiring.”